Pompeii

A Time Capsule

Mount Vesuvius looms 4,200 feet over modern-day Naples. The residents know that it's not a question of "if" it awakens, but simply a question of "when". As residents of the San Francisco Bay area, we know what it's like: we are overdue for another "big one" like the 1906 earthquake that leveled San Francisco. But we carry on, having made the conscious decision that the pleasure of living here outweighs the unknown danger ahead. Neapolitans must love their city very much. Some even live on the slopes of the mountain trusting that they will have time to evacuate when it becomes necessary.

I wonder if the residents of the small resort city of Pompeii had made the same calculation back in 79 AD. When the volcano began to erupt, people fled. Pliny the Elder, who was with the imperial fleet in the bay, tried to use his ship to help in the evacuation. He lost his life along with many others, when a pyroclastic flow, a cloud of superheated gases roared down the mountain at over 400 miles per hour, burning everything in its path to a crisp in a matter of seconds. Pompeii, and the neighboring city of Herculaneum, were buried under many layers of volcanic ash, and forgotten for the next sixteen centuries.

Streets and Structures

Vesuvius is still there.	The stepping stones allow two chariots to pass.	A narrower street. One way?
A back alley	Ready to eat food was kept hot by the fire under this counter.
Pompeii had a small theater		An old fountain was adapted to cooling off the tourists.
	The Forum
Some multi-story buildings survive	The House of Menander is one of the best preserved	Exercise field of the Stabian Baths
Atrium, House of Menander